Charlotte Fraser
@charlottefraser.bsky.social
PhD researcher in Cultural Studies at the University of Sussex. Interested in 'crisis', everyday life, infrastructure, energy, narrative, and politics.
Preparing for the 'Cultural Analysis in the World' symposium in Amsterdam next week and have really enjoyed reading Aylin Kuryel's excellent essay on the field's vexed relationship with 'social relevance'.
October 14, 2025 at 11:07 AM
Preparing for the 'Cultural Analysis in the World' symposium in Amsterdam next week and have really enjoyed reading Aylin Kuryel's excellent essay on the field's vexed relationship with 'social relevance'.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
This is a) utterly terrifying and b) vital. Don’t turn away. The crisis is fixable because it is, ultimately, political. We know the chemistry. We decline the action necessary.
The headline news that won't be headline news.
'A tragedy': World may have reached first climate 'tipping point' as coral reefs face collapse
Warm-water coral reefs - on which a billion people and a quarter of all marine life depend - are on the brink of collapse, according to a major new scientific study
www.businessgreen.com
October 13, 2025 at 8:33 AM
This is a) utterly terrifying and b) vital. Don’t turn away. The crisis is fixable because it is, ultimately, political. We know the chemistry. We decline the action necessary.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
Ok I know a lot of yous were surprised you hadn’t heard of the longest strike in NHS history happening in Gloucester, now here’s your chance to make a difference - a local petition like this is really important, please sign
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...
Say no to bullying of NHS staff
Treatment of striking NHS staff
This helps to explain the treatment of NHS workers on strike in Gloucestershire in recent months.
A small but mighty group of workers have been on strike since...
www.megaphone.org.uk
October 10, 2025 at 4:24 PM
Ok I know a lot of yous were surprised you hadn’t heard of the longest strike in NHS history happening in Gloucester, now here’s your chance to make a difference - a local petition like this is really important, please sign
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...
www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/sa...
Also travelling to Aarhus for the @dkmarxsoc.bsky.social conference on Abolition and pleasantly surprised to report no delays from the deutsche bahn (!) so far?
Look forward to talking crisis, debt and social reproduction tomorrow morning provided I haven't just jinxed my travel 🛤️
Look forward to talking crisis, debt and social reproduction tomorrow morning provided I haven't just jinxed my travel 🛤️
October 9, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Also travelling to Aarhus for the @dkmarxsoc.bsky.social conference on Abolition and pleasantly surprised to report no delays from the deutsche bahn (!) so far?
Look forward to talking crisis, debt and social reproduction tomorrow morning provided I haven't just jinxed my travel 🛤️
Look forward to talking crisis, debt and social reproduction tomorrow morning provided I haven't just jinxed my travel 🛤️
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Young lives cut short on an unimaginable scale: the 18,457 children on Gaza’s list of war dead
Every name on a list compiled by health authorities in Gaza of the child victims of Israel’s offensive
www.theguardian.com
October 8, 2025 at 9:35 AM
This is devastating but hard to think of more important journalism. 18,457 children have been killed in Gaza (many more not accounted for). Here, The Guardian prints their names and beautiful faces and tells us what they were like before Israel stole their lives. www.theguardian.com/world/ng-int...
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
In food history, we notice how super-refined foods--gelatin, vienna sausage, white bread--lose class and become horrifying once they become industrialized. Suddenly, fingermarks in bread dough demonstrate skill, not clumsiness.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
October 1, 2025 at 3:05 AM
In food history, we notice how super-refined foods--gelatin, vienna sausage, white bread--lose class and become horrifying once they become industrialized. Suddenly, fingermarks in bread dough demonstrate skill, not clumsiness.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Post-chatGPT, I'm feeling this about writing. Smoothness feels gross.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer
September 10, 2025 at 11:41 PM
every time there's political violence discourse i think about how jo cox was assassinated in broad daylight by a fascist who shouted "britain first" as he shot her, and now nine years later her party is dedicating every moment in power to placating the ideology of her murderer
'In short, Accidental Lime-Bike Critical Mass (ALBCM) is making our streets safer in general. Bad cyclist behaviour is conditioning bad driver behaviour, for the better.'
danhancox.substack.com/p/onwards-to...
danhancox.substack.com/p/onwards-to...
Forwards! To the Lime-bike critical mass singularity
In defence of the most annoying cyclists in London
danhancox.substack.com
September 9, 2025 at 1:41 PM
'In short, Accidental Lime-Bike Critical Mass (ALBCM) is making our streets safer in general. Bad cyclist behaviour is conditioning bad driver behaviour, for the better.'
danhancox.substack.com/p/onwards-to...
danhancox.substack.com/p/onwards-to...
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
there's a crowdsourced directory of branches on yourparty.tools
Your Party democracy toolkit
A living toolkit, resource bank, and directory to help you organise Your Party
yourparty.tools
September 8, 2025 at 1:21 PM
there's a crowdsourced directory of branches on yourparty.tools
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
If you're a police officer and you don't want to be spat and kicked at, don't be a police officer. Your job at these demos is literally to make supporting genocide easier for the British state, what do you expect? news.sky.com/story/police...
Police condemn 'intolerable abuse' at Palestine Action protest - as more than 425 arrests made
Hundreds of Palestine Action supporters were "sat around, lying around, waiting to be arrested but with so many people here, it's taking a long time", Sky News' Laura Bundock, who was at the protest, ...
news.sky.com
September 7, 2025 at 8:34 PM
If you're a police officer and you don't want to be spat and kicked at, don't be a police officer. Your job at these demos is literally to make supporting genocide easier for the British state, what do you expect? news.sky.com/story/police...
Are there any meetings like this or groups getting together across (N) London?
Jan B reflects on the first ‘Your Party’ public meeting in Glasgow.
After-party: Your Party Glasgow initial public meeting
rs21 - revolutionary socialism in the 21st century
revsoc21.uk
September 8, 2025 at 7:52 AM
Are there any meetings like this or groups getting together across (N) London?
if you want something feel-good!
Pro wrestling is often associated with the Right, but a new character has become popular for championing solidarity and workers’ rights, reflecting the growing economic precarity of its fanbase.
In Search of Left Wrestling
Pro wrestling is often associated with the Right, but a new character has become popular for championing solidarity and workers’ rights, reflecting the growing economic precarity of its fanbase.
tribunemag.co.uk
August 29, 2025 at 8:50 AM
if you want something feel-good!
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
🚨COMRADES!🚨
It's finally time to register for the 10th Danish conference for marxist studies on oct.10th-11th through link below!
This year the theme is on "Abolition" and we are so 🎉HYPED🎉 for this year's line-up which includes our great keynotes @genderhorizon.com and @brosef-stalin.bsky.social 🔥
It's finally time to register for the 10th Danish conference for marxist studies on oct.10th-11th through link below!
This year the theme is on "Abolition" and we are so 🎉HYPED🎉 for this year's line-up which includes our great keynotes @genderhorizon.com and @brosef-stalin.bsky.social 🔥
August 27, 2025 at 5:26 PM
🚨COMRADES!🚨
It's finally time to register for the 10th Danish conference for marxist studies on oct.10th-11th through link below!
This year the theme is on "Abolition" and we are so 🎉HYPED🎉 for this year's line-up which includes our great keynotes @genderhorizon.com and @brosef-stalin.bsky.social 🔥
It's finally time to register for the 10th Danish conference for marxist studies on oct.10th-11th through link below!
This year the theme is on "Abolition" and we are so 🎉HYPED🎉 for this year's line-up which includes our great keynotes @genderhorizon.com and @brosef-stalin.bsky.social 🔥
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
No, with respect, the buck stops with him. He's the leader. Not McSweeney, not the comms guy. He sets the strategy, tone and values. He is responsible. Either Starmer and his whole crew are ousted and are replaced by something very different or its Vichy Labour from here until doomsday.
Keir Starmer should look at what is going out in his name on X and rein it in.
There is no point retracting the accidental allusions to Enoch Powell if the Downing St comms team seem to be apeing the Willie Horton playbook
There is no point retracting the accidental allusions to Enoch Powell if the Downing St comms team seem to be apeing the Willie Horton playbook
August 27, 2025 at 2:04 PM
No, with respect, the buck stops with him. He's the leader. Not McSweeney, not the comms guy. He sets the strategy, tone and values. He is responsible. Either Starmer and his whole crew are ousted and are replaced by something very different or its Vichy Labour from here until doomsday.
ASCA based PhD researchers! I would love to hear from you for the PhD panel part of this workshop between ASCA and the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies 👇
NICA recommends | SCCS-ASCA Workshop - with a keynote by Ben Highmore: Cultural Analysis in the Wild - Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA)
(It’s a truism that cultural studies is different wherever it's practiced. In this workshop, two institutions come together to compare notes on how the field
www.nica-institute.com
July 15, 2025 at 7:17 AM
ASCA based PhD researchers! I would love to hear from you for the PhD panel part of this workshop between ASCA and the Sussex Centre for Cultural Studies 👇
Fascinating
You can find almost the same use of light in AI slop. Unlike CGI renderings, AI images aren't based on a simulation of light being reflected from objects in virtual space but on a statistical distribution of color values on a flat surface, which makes them more akin to painting than photography
3/
3/
July 2, 2025 at 8:15 AM
Fascinating
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
The West is that place on earth where an army killing civilians on a massive scale creates less outrage than calling for the metaphorical death of that army. The actual is trumped by the imaginary.
June 30, 2025 at 12:45 PM
The West is that place on earth where an army killing civilians on a massive scale creates less outrage than calling for the metaphorical death of that army. The actual is trumped by the imaginary.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.
www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.
www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
Big Tech's data centres will take water from world's driest areas
Amazon, Microsoft and Google's data centres use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and they are building more.
www.source-material.org
April 9, 2025 at 12:02 PM
New from me: I've spent the last 6 months compiling a map of data centres, whose locations are generally secret, operated by Amazon, Microsoft and Google.
Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.
www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
Cross-referencing that map with areas of water scarcity shows many are in the world's driest areas.
www.source-material.org/amazon-micro...
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
Labour's idea of 'free speech' is freedom to make trans people feel unsafe on campus, but not the freedom to criticise Israel.
March 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Labour's idea of 'free speech' is freedom to make trans people feel unsafe on campus, but not the freedom to criticise Israel.
'It is not just that the only story we hear is the one told by gender critical academics. It is not just that those who claim to be silenced are given more opportunities to speak. Their speech is how other people are silenced.'
I wrote this yesterday before I heard the news about Sussex being fined £585,000 by the higher education regulator OfS led by Arif Ahmed (what a confirmation of bias!) and the repetition of that old cover story, 'Hounded.'
Hope it helps. Killjoy solidarity!
feministkilljoys.substack.com/p/hounded
Hope it helps. Killjoy solidarity!
feministkilljoys.substack.com/p/hounded
Hounded!
As a cover story (told by and about "gender critical" feminists)
feministkilljoys.substack.com
March 26, 2025 at 2:06 PM
'It is not just that the only story we hear is the one told by gender critical academics. It is not just that those who claim to be silenced are given more opportunities to speak. Their speech is how other people are silenced.'
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
This is of very great concern. Labour has effectively declared war on trans academics and students. By defining transphobia as a “free speech” issue it is going to protect transphobes in higher education while preventing trans-inclusion. This is the opposite of “free speech”.
Sussex university fined £585,000 in transgender free speech row
The university is fined by the higher education regulator for failing to uphold freedom of speech.
www.bbc.co.uk
March 26, 2025 at 5:06 AM
This is of very great concern. Labour has effectively declared war on trans academics and students. By defining transphobia as a “free speech” issue it is going to protect transphobes in higher education while preventing trans-inclusion. This is the opposite of “free speech”.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
If you have to "self-censor" rather than spreading transphobic propaganda perhaps you should be self censoring.
Trans and non-binary individuals are not "fair game" for abuse, no matter how much some seem to think so right now. We all deserve to not face abuse.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Trans and non-binary individuals are not "fair game" for abuse, no matter how much some seem to think so right now. We all deserve to not face abuse.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
![The OfS criticised the university's policy statement on Trans and Non-Binary equality, saying its requirement to "positively represent trans people" and an assertion that "transphobic propaganda [would] not be tolerated" could lead staff and students to "self-censor".](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gt5f4xsjqzwdwqsakypbknxm/bafkreid5yk735ialulixttvi27hkknnrnjqplocj2leintloug2znfxpl4@jpeg)
March 26, 2025 at 7:15 AM
If you have to "self-censor" rather than spreading transphobic propaganda perhaps you should be self censoring.
Trans and non-binary individuals are not "fair game" for abuse, no matter how much some seem to think so right now. We all deserve to not face abuse.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Trans and non-binary individuals are not "fair game" for abuse, no matter how much some seem to think so right now. We all deserve to not face abuse.
#r4today
www.bbc.com/news/article...
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
3 collaborative doctoral awards - funded studentships - on the project 'Visual Cultures of Fascism'. www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgr...
THREE AHRC NWCDTP Collaborative Doctoral Awards on the project “Visual Cultures of Fascism”
Applications are invited for three fully-funded AHRC NWCDTP Collaborative Doctoral Award (+3) beginning in September 2025.
The rising popularity of the 35mm Leica camera and the Parvo video camera i...
www.liverpool.ac.uk
February 13, 2025 at 8:57 AM
3 collaborative doctoral awards - funded studentships - on the project 'Visual Cultures of Fascism'. www.liverpool.ac.uk/study/postgr...
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
It's...not countering if....it's....the same stuff.
"Today Starmer will attempt to counter Farage’s party with a series of hardhitting videos on immigration. The party has also run adverts with Reform-style branding and messaging." Times
February 10, 2025 at 9:30 AM
It's...not countering if....it's....the same stuff.
Reposted by Charlotte Fraser
Masters scholarships for Palestinian students at Sussex. Please disseminate?
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...
University announces new scholarships for Palestinian students
These scholarships will provide fully-funded support for two Palestinian students, with a particular focus on those impacted by the conflict in Gaza
www.sussex.ac.uk
February 13, 2025 at 9:56 AM
Masters scholarships for Palestinian students at Sussex. Please disseminate?
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...
www.sussex.ac.uk/broadcast/re...